THE taste of defeat was particularly bitter for Hereford race ace Lea Wood after a first Jack Sears Trophy win was snatched away from him at Brands Hatch.

Wood crossed the line 16th, but first in his S2000 section, in the third and final British Touring Car Championship race of the day only to be disqualified for a technical infringement.

“The height of the vehicle above the ground is a key thing and if it’s the lower then its better for handling,” said Wood.

“We had a problem with the suspension in the first race but we fixed that in time for the second race.

“We went out for the warm-up lap but broke a drive-shaft so that had to be abandoned. “The car went very well in the third race but the suspension settled and we failed the test by three or four millimetres.”

The manner of the disqualification was also hard to bear for the Hereford driver.

“I’d gone up on to the podium to collect the trophy while they were doing the investigation,” said the 28-year-old. “And then when I got down from the podium, they took the trophy off me. It was gutting.”

Wood, however, was generally pleased with how the weekend had gone. “We qualified 16th out of 27 and 1.2 seconds faster than our nearest Jack Sears rival,” he said. “And, when we started from the back of the grid in the third race, the car went really well.

“We can take plenty of confidence from the weekend - we have shown that the car has the pace and that we can work our way up from the back of the grid.”

The British Touring Car Championship now heads for the next round at Donington on April 21.